Originally published on GI-ACE Corruption and bribery are inherently social phenomena: they involve social interactions that facilitate the exchange of money and gifts, but also social interactions through which people learn about expectations of reciprocity and solidarity that underlie bribery and favoritism. My colleagues at the Basel Institute on Governance discovered in their earlier research that…
A version of this blog was originally published on the African Centre for Cities website and GI-ACE From 8 to 10 October 2019, the Cities of Integrity project – in partnership with the Centre for Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Zambia and the Zambia Institute of Planners (ZIP) – conducted a Qualitative Action…
Originally Published on GI-ACE In the first “Harnessing Informality” blog, I explained the background stemming from the findings of our previous research, which explained how we found that informal social networks can be part of the explanation for why corruption seems to be so resilient. In our current follow-on project, we are exploring how this knowledge about…
Originally published on GI-ACE Corruption, both petty and grand in scale, is a well-known problem facing traders crossing East Africa’s borders. It shows up in survey after survey and, like corruption more generally in the region, deeply affects the poor and is often gendered. This is hardly surprising. The 2019 Global Corruption Monitor results show the majority of African citizens surveyed from…
Originally published on GI-ACE Anti-corruption law enforcement in Africa is facing multiple challenges, ranging from a lack of resources to the difficulty of producing evidence that holds up in court. This blog post focuses on one aspect of anti-corruption law enforcement that has proven to be particularly challenging: the independence of most African anti-corruption agencies. Originally deemed…
Originally published on GI-ACE Across a range of macroeconomic measures, the years of 2015 and 2016 brought on marked changes in Nigeria’s public, political, and economic arenas. We focus on these years because more recent data is harder to locate. Observers familiar with the country will know that gross domestic product (and government fiscal revenue)…